JMU @ UNC

[JMUSaxMRD]

Game starts at 6:05 and is on ESPN 360 if you get it. I'm listening to it in Harrisonburg, Virginia. I had the opportunity to go to this game in the band, but too many people signed up and i had too much work to do this weekend so I volunteered to step down, but I will definitely be listening to hopefully what is another upset over a FBS team.

[The Dude]

I'm pulling for JMU to take down UNC (Furman almost did it last season, but hopefully another purple team will make it happen).

Keep us posted.

[JMUSaxMRD]

It appears the local radio station the game is on just went out... and you can't listen to it for free on jmusports.com anymore so i'm upset!

[PantherRob82]

no updates?

[bodoyle]

14-0 unc last i heard

9 yards of off. for jmu and about 130 for unc.

[CopperCat]

14-0 unc last i heard

9 yards of off. for jmu and about 130 for unc.

Yuck. Let's get it goin' JMU!xthumbsupx

[bodoyle]

21-0 about 4:00 left in 1st quarter.

[bodoyle]

jmu - 0 pass. yards, 9 rush yards.
unc - 111 pass. yards, 111 rush yards

[JMUSaxMRD]

The local radio station that puts the broadcast out just totally went out and i have no clue why. But yah we're losing 21-0 with like 2 mins left in the 1st... It just came back in!
Time to listen and see what happens

[JMUSaxMRD]

24 UNC JMU 7 with JMU having their ball on their 1 yard line, got up to the 9 2nd and 2. late second quarter, not sure how much time left.

[th0m]

30-7 UNC at the half. JMU showing some signs of life, but too many mistakes, and letting big plays happen. I think (hope) it will even out in the 2nd half, that 65yd TD pass and subsequent fumble took any wind that we had in our sail out of it.

[JMUSaxMRD]

37-7... its over for the most part 7:14 left in the 3rd quarter. :( Oh well hopefully we do better against FCS opponents.

[Henny]

Wow, on a day when JMU fans, almost entirely declared themselves the favorite, their team literally went to Chapel Hill and crapped the bed! This was a squad predicted to win the South Division of the CAA and was totally dominated by a poor, inexperienced underclass laden team. JMU managed 250 total yards but as the anouncers said dont be fooled by statisitcs. This was a but whipping from start to the last minutes when JMU's first string got a TD against the UNC's deep bench.

Its time the JMU fans look at the present (not 2004) and reasess what their team is NOW. It certainly looks to be a rebuilding year for the Dukes and hopefully they can find something in the tapes to build on to compete in their next few games before getting into the heart of the schedule.

[JMU-MRD-DAD]

This is a funny post Henny.......

Ditto for the Hens(not 2003).......

............lol......

[ChickenMan]

It can't be that JMU isn't very good.. so it must be that Butch Davis has already turned UNC into a ACC powerhouse. ;)

[BDKJMU]

jmu - 0 pass. yards, 9 rush yards.
unc - 111 pass. yards, 111 rush yards

You were hearing things. UNC had 111 rushing yards in the 1st quarter? UNC had 100 yards rushing the whole game. Here's how they rolled up their points (copied and pasted what I wrote on the caazone.com JMU board):

Going off my slightly alcoholic induced memory of the game and referring to the game stats:

1st UNC score, 3rd play from scrimmage, on 3rd and 2, play action, 65 yard TD pass- someone fell down, didn't see who it was. The receiver was WIDE open.

Landers fumbles on JMU's 1st play. 6 plays later Ramsey saves JMU with his interception at the JMU 9.

UNC scores next TD after Pritchard's 27 yard punt to JMU 43. 28 yard pass over the fingertips of someone in JMU secondary. Now 14-0 UNC mid 1st quarter.

UNC scores next TD after Pritchard's 18 yard punt to JMU 40. Now 21-0 UNC late 1st quarter.

UNC gets their early 2nd quarter FG after picking off Lander's tipped pass (couldn't tell if it was his fault) to JMU's 12. 2 rushes for 3 yards and an incomplete pass, so the defense did good here to hold them to a field goal. Now 24-0 UNC early 2nd quarter.

JMU finally puts together a nice TD drive with 4 1st downs (1 courtesy of a UNC personal foul), despite a holding called on Lemm. Now 24-7 UNC mid 2nd quarter.

JMU holds UNC to a punt on their next possession.

JMU's next possession one 1st down (one of the 1/2 dozen 6 men on the line penalties) and Pritchard finally gets a decent punt, 43 yards, 1 on the return.

UNC scores their 4th TD mainly set up by the 43 yard diving catch made by one of their stud receievers. Now 30-7 UNC late 2nd quarter.

2nd half UNC's only score was off of the blocked Pritchard punt where they got the ball at the JMU 1. Defense did pretty well 2nd half (from what I saw, I left at the end of the 3rd quarter).

JMU offense did put together that nice 79 yard play drive late 4th quarter (yes, I know it was garbage time, but hey, trying to find a silver lining here). Final score 37-14.

Final stats:
Total offense UNC 327, JMU 250
Rushing UNC 100 on 34 carries, 2.9 avg. JMU 150 on 44, 3.4 avg (Holloman 23 for 84, Landers 14 for 71).
Only 100 yards passing for JMU, Landers 14-22, 1 TD, 2 INTs. (The tipped ball I'm not sure about. I didn't see the deep pass intercepted in the 4th quarter). The UNC QB Yates looked pretty good, 13-18, 3 TDs,1 INT

So UNC's scores were set up by/aided/came after:
-65 yard bomb when DB slipped/fell
-43 yard bomb on a great diving catch,
-16 yard JMU punt
-27 yard JMU punt
-blocked JMU punt recovered at the JMU 1
interception returned to the JMU 12 (UNC held to a field goal here).
UNC never had a sustained drive 50+ yards down the field to score on JMU.

Special teams play overall was poor. Punting game was ABOMINABLE. 7 punts avg 29 yards (does the blocked one factor in here?), one blocked & recovered at the JMU 1 yard line. As someone pointed out earlier, JMU's avg 1st half starting field position was their own 19. UNC's was the JMU's 40.

Called 6 I believe it was times for only 6 men on the line of scrimmage! I wonder if that's some kind of record?

Passing game, well, not very good. Landers did complete about 64% of his passes (yes, I know, at least half were no to short gain). Rushing game a little better, but if you take away that last drive, wasn't very good. Defense was put on their heels the whole 1st half and part of the second. Run defense thought did a very good job. With the 2 new starting LBs (I know Barnes started in 05') and 2 new d-line starters vs. 4 of 5 starters in secondary back (make it 3 for the UNC game thanks to the DUI) I was more worried about the run d than the pass d, esp against UNC. Looks like JMU could again have one of the top run defenses in the CAA and I-AA. Didn't get a sack, but didn't give up one either. Pass defense got dinked and dunk ed some on the short & medium stuff, but at least not to death a la YSU. Did give up those 2 long balls, but those are the best receivers JMU will face all year.

JMU will obviously be even more run oriented than in year's past with the newly installed read option. Yes, JMU's running game looked a little predictable against the Heels. Hopefully that was a case as some others have stated, of MM/Durden keeping things a little close to the vest against UNC. Also, that was the 1st game for JMU running that read option spread, and hopefully it will improve each game execution. UNH had a very suspect run defense last year, and JMU rolled for I believe it was 259 on the ground. UNH according to the CAA media giude has 6 starters back on the defensive side of the ball, so hopefully they won't be any better than last year against the run and maybe JMU will get it opened up on the ground. To beat UNH JMU will have to be better in all phases of the game except run defense. Will probably have to put up in the 30s, maybe 40s to beat UNH.

Sat night wasn't encouraging, but on the other hand, after the 11 point Bloomsburg win and 11 point App State loss last year, there was a little bit of a sky is falling attitude. Sure, JMU played poorly against Bloomsburg, but some people thought Bloomsburg=Lock haven, another DII patsy. Lock Haven is a the bottom of the barrel of the 14 team PA State Athletic Conference, and Bloomsburg is a national DII powerhouse. Finished undefeated in DII play the regular season after the JMU loss, and lost in the 3rd round of the DII playoffs to finish 12-2. And of course App State won the national title again, and JMU turned out to be a pretty good team with a really good season after all. UNC game certainly not a good game for JMU. Could have been worse. Hopefully things will look much brighter a month-month & a half into the season, just like last yr.

[Henny]

Nice analysis and I understand, unfortunately 90% of Duke fans don't agree with you. In the off season, a UD fan brought up the game with JMU in 04 when UD out gained the Dukes by 300 yards (must be a record for a loss) and lost on a variety of special team mistakes.

JMU fans hit the poster with a variety of insults and attacks

I guess the point is, JMU better be prepared to be scrutinized on a national level given their fans opinion of the team and willingness to degrade other teams.

[th0m]

Wow, on a day when JMU fans, almost entirely declared themselves the favorite, their team literally went to Chapel Hill and crapped the bed! This was a squad predicted to win the South Division of the CAA and was totally dominated by a poor, inexperienced underclass laden team. JMU managed 250 total yards but as the anouncers said dont be fooled by statisitcs. This was a but whipping from start to the last minutes when JMU's first string got a TD against the UNC's deep bench.

Its time the JMU fans look at the present (not 2004) and reasess what their team is NOW. It certainly looks to be a rebuilding year for the Dukes and hopefully they can find something in the tapes to build on to compete in their next few games before getting into the heart of the schedule.

Well the heart of the schedule begins next week, we've got UNH coming to Harrisonburg.

While this was definitely not a moment of glory for us, I think a lot of people need to understand Mickey's philosophy on these games. He showed NOTHING at UNC. Most JMU folks know he hates these money games, and if you get in a hole early, which was the case against UNC, he's just not going to even try. Of course, this is easy to say if you lost a game in such a manner, and us JMU fans have certainly been hopeful in our possible upsetting of UNC, but I think a lot of people will agree with me on this one.

Having said that, I'm anxious about our game with UNH, on a multitude of levels.

[ChickenMan]

So UNC's scores were set up by/aided/came after:
-65 yard bomb when DB slipped/fell
-43 yard bomb on a great diving catch,
-16 yard JMU punt
-27 yard JMU punt
-blocked JMU punt recovered at the JMU 1
interception returned to the JMU 12 (UNC held to a field goal here).
UNC never had a sustained drive 50+ yards down the field to score on JMU.



With all those JMU mistakes.. apparently UNC didn't get many opportunities to drve 50+ yrds.

Even with a stout defense.. it's going to be tough to win vs good CAA opponents if the JMU passing and special teams games don't improve.. a lot.

UNH.. next week will tell the tale.

[th0m]

Kick-return coverage was pretty good though. Their feared return specialist Tate didn't really get to do his thing. Now this was partiallly because the punts went out of bounce, but the punts Tate did get to catch, JMU players were all over it.

[BDKJMU]

It didn't help that JMU was shorthanded in the secondary.
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